2011 has been a very busy year and when I look back, I’m amazed at how much has changed on my Teaching Websites. Here are some of my highlights:

Teaching Ideas

Teaching Ideas celebrated its 13th year online in 2011 and the site has been receiving record numbers of visitors. Some updates to the site included:

• A new navigation system, which was introduced to help visitors find their way around the ever-expanding site! I also added a new commenting system, allowing visitors to give feedback on the teaching ideas available. Teaching Ideas was also completely redesigned in October, giving it a much clearer layout and making it quicker to load.
• One of my biggest targets this year was to expand the site and create lots of new resources and I’ve been able to devote lots more time to doing this. Some of these can be found in the Shape, Sketching, Fractions, Handwriting and Classroom Rewards sections, but there are many more! I’ve also started adding thumbnail images to the resources to give you a preview of what they look like!
• My wonderful wife continued to draw some fantastic cartoon images for Teaching Ideas which I have been able to use on different resources. These can be found in the Maths, Colour, Tudors, Romans and Victorians sections. Helen’s cartoons have also been used on this year’s new Teaching Themes sections… Staying Safe Online, Kings and Queens, Easter, Keeping Healthy and Lights, Camera, Action!
• I also subscribed to a stock photo site, which has allowed me to use lots of high quality photos on new educational resources (see the Music, Maths Inspirations, ICT Inspirations and Animals resources for a selection of examples).
• Lots of amazing teachers have also shared their own ideas and resources and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who continues to take the time to send their contributions.

I’ve written over 175 posts on Teaching News this year, sharing the latest educational news, links, events and resources. The site has continued to grow in popularity with higher visitor numbers and lots of new email and RSS subscribers. Some of the most popular posts include 10 Inspiring Youtube videos for Teachers, 10 Evernote Uses for Teacher, New iPod, iPhone and iPad Apps for Schools and my Discoveries series of posts. I must also thank the Teachers Building Society who sponsor Teaching News.

Teaching Videos

Every week, I explore the latest educational videos and add them to the directory on Teaching Videos. Over 1,000 new videos have been added this year, enabling teachers to find relevant video content quickly by looking in the different subject / topic areas.

Teaching Photos

At the start of 2011, I transferred Teaching Photos to a new management system, allowing teachers to view and share their own photos. The site is a popular source of inspiration for classroom displays.

Teaching Events

I also transferred Teaching Events to a new system, making it much easier for me to update. As a result, the site is now bursting with hundreds of educational events that you can use as the starting point for learning in your classroom. Visitors to the site can also easily submit their own events and professional development opportunities.

Teaching Library

Over the summer, I also spent some time building a new site… the Teaching Library. As you may know, this site offers free teaching ideas and resources linked to popular children’s books. After only a few months online, the site now has resources for 50 books and it has received lots of praise from teachers and authors. I’m looking forward to continuing to expand the site next year.

More updates!

In 2011, I also redesigned Ideas to Inspire and Teaching Websites. Have you seen them yet? I’ve continued to post regularly on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, which now have over 26,000 followers in total!

My wife also set up a new web site which is devoted to sharing her fantastic craft skills. Please take a look at Sew Surprising and leave her a comment!

The future…

As 2012 approaches, I’m looking forward to continuing to work on all of my sites… making and sharing free ideas and resources for teachers everywhere.

What did you achieve in 2012?

Christmas is just over one month away and lots of schools are getting ready for their Christmas-themed lessons and activities! Our popular Christmas theme was published last year and the resources were downloaded many thousands of times. I’ve recently made a new set of resources and added them to the page. Take a look!

I’ve also made a set of ‘Inspirations’ posters linked to Christmas. These can be used as lesson starters… to stimulate discussion… to review what children know… as a starting point for creative writing… or for classroom display. If people like them, I’ll try and make some more Inspirations for the other sections on Teaching Ideas.

I’m sure that I’ll be making more Christmas resources over the coming weeks, so stay tuned to our RSS feed, Facebook and Twitter pages to receive the latest updates!

I get to watch lots of online videos in my search for new additions to my Teaching Videos site. The site now has almost 2,500 educational videos, so I thought that I would share some of my favourites… the most inspirational… the most incredible… the most beautiful… and the most entertaining. Here they are:

1) Try to Do – This wonderful video tells a great story about a baby squirrel who tries to climb a big wall. It is a fantastic way of encouraging children to think about perseverance and determination, as well as exploring ways of helping others.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) I’ll Be Gone - This video could be used to discuss how sounds and music are made… watch the rhythm of each sound played out in the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) Steve Spangler Science – Steve has a huge collection of online videos which teach Science in very exciting ways. Lots of his experiments can be tried at home or in the classroom, but some (like the one below) are definitely not appropriate!

Click here to view the embedded video.

4) Landscapes: Volume Two – This is a beautiful video which features stunning time-lapse video of landscapes in Arizona and Utah. It would be great for inspiring descriptive writing about settings and locations.

Click here to view the embedded video.

5) The Water Cycle stop motion – I love stop-motion animations and we make lots of them at school too. This video is a great animation about the water cycle which is perfect for Science lessons:

Click here to view the embedded video.

6) The Balloon Lady - Can you write a story about the Balloon Lady? Why is she so cheerful? How does it make the other people feel to be given a balloon? What happens to the balloons after the end of the film?

Click here to view the embedded video.

7) Kuroshio Sea – This looks incredible in full-screen HD on an interactive whiteboard. I’ve shown this to classes a number of times and the reaction is always ‘WOW!’.

Click here to view the embedded video.

8 ) The Highwayman – Lots of schools use ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes as part of their Literacy lessons and this animated video is a great accompaniment for any work using the book. Don’t forget that there are more teaching ideas linked to The Highwayman on my Teaching Library site.

Click here to view the embedded video.

9) Test Your Awareness – This extremely popular video is a great test of children’s observation skills!

Click here to view the embedded video.

10) Haerskogen – These amazing little creatures could be used in the classroom in lots of ways. Can your children write a description of them, or a story about their lives? Could they design their own creatures in Art, DT or ICT? Could you use them in Science for work on habitats and adaptation?

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are your favourite online videos?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy working on a new look for Teaching Ideas and I’m really pleased that the updated site is now online.

The site has a much clearer layout and I’ve reorganised the ideas and resources according to their relevant age ranges to make them easier to find. I’ve also gone through the code throughout the entire site which means that it should be quicker to load.

To celebrate the launch of the new site, I’ve also made a new set of my popular ‘Inspiration’ resources… this new set give ideas for inspiring Maths lessons. They can be used as lesson starters to stimulate discussion about Maths concepts. You could also put them on your classroom displays to get children thinking about Maths! I’m also working on a new set of ‘History Inspiration’ posters which should be online very soon!

I hope that you like the new site. The new layout is also much quicker for me to update, which means that I can spend more time making free resources for you!

Over the summer holidays, I set up a new site to add my existing collection of Teaching Websites. The Teaching Library is a place to find free lesson ideas, activities and resources linked to popular children’s books. The lesson ideas are all organised by subject and there are also related videos and other material which can be used in the classroom.

www.teachinglibrary.co.uk

The site has been extremely well received so far and I’ve had lots of positive comments from teachers and authors! If you have any book suggestions or relevant lesson ideas / resources, please get in touch. You can also use the ‘Add a Book‘ form on the site to help the site to grow. Thanks!

I hope that the new site is useful to you.

The new academic year has started for many schools here in the UK, with lots of other schools opening again next week. For those who are new to the teaching profession (as well as other more experienced members), I thought that it might be useful to make a list of some of my favourite resource sites. All of these offer free ideas and resources which you can use in your classrooms…

Teaching Ideas

I have to start by mentioning my Teaching Ideas site. It’s been online since 1998 and offers free lesson ideas, activities and resources. Lots of these have been contributed by teachers around the world and the site is organised by subject / topic to help you find things easily. Don’t forget to look at my other Teaching Websites too.

Primary Resources

Primary Resources is another popular resource site which was set up at the same time as Teaching Ideas, by Gareth Pitchford. The site is enormous and is one of the best places to look for content to use in your classrooms.

Communication4All

Bev Evans makes this wonderful site which is full of fantastic resources. You will find lots of great material to print and laminate here!

TES

The TES has a wide variety of resources, all contributed by teachers and other education professionals. They also host videos from the Teachers TV archive, which are a great source of advice and information.

TPet

TPet make resources of the highest quality. They have a wonderful selection of display resources and activities as well as a blog which is a great source of inspiration too!

Twinkl

The Twinkl site is growing at an amazing rate and they have a wide variety of resources. Take a look!

Teaching Search

As there are so many great resource sites, it sometimes takes a while to search through all of them. So, I created a search engine which searches a number of the most popular ones. It’s free to use and gives results from a special selection of top quality sites.

Primary Teacher Resource Centre Forum

There are a number of educational forums online, but my favourite is the PTRC forum. It’s full of lovely people who are always willing to offer advice and share their resources.

Twitter / Facebook

Don’t forget that there are also lots of great teachers using social networking sites to share ideas. Take a look at Teaching Ideas on Twitter and Facebook to get some ideas about who else to follow.

Are there any other great resource sites that I have missed? What are your favourites?

A few weeks ago, I redesigned ‘Ideas to Inspire‘. If you are not aware of it already, the site is a collection of collaborative presentations which shares ideas for using different types of technology (and other tools) in the classroom. The presentations were initially inspired by Tom Barrett’s ‘Interesting Ways’ presentations, but there are many others on the site too.

The original version of the site has always been extremely popular. However, the design of the site restricted the number of presentations that I could add. The new site (v2.0!) lists all of the presentations on a single page and there is a handy filter which shows and hides presentations based on your choice. So, you could look through the presentations which share ideas for particular curriculum areas or you could view the ideas for using different online tools in the classroom.

Take a look – I hope that you like it!

www.ideastoinspire.co.uk

Over the past month or two, I’ve been making and uploading lots of new resources to Teaching Ideas. These include:

• Alphabet Cards – in different letter styles and with ideas for using them in the classroom.
• Handwriting Sheets – in precursive and cursive letter styles.
• Maths Resources – including banners, vocabulary cards and activity sheets.
• Superheroes Resources – new resources on our popular Superheroes theme.
• Cutting Skills – to support children’s ability to use scissors carefully and accurately.
• Synonyms Display Words – A set of words which can be used to extend children’s vocabulary.

If you have any comments or suggestions about my Teaching Websites, please get in touch!

This Teaching News blog is one of a number of Teaching Websites that I run. Over the past few months, I’ve been busy updating all of them, so I thought that it might be useful to give an outline of the changes for people who aren’t aware of them:

Teaching Ideas

• A new drop-down menu has been added to Teaching Ideas (and Teaching Videos, Events and Photos) to make it much easier (and quicker) to move around the site.
• I’m also reorganising some of the sections so that the contents pages aren’t so long to scroll through. Some of these also include previews of the resources that are available (see the Tudors page).
• I’m currently in the process of transferring the comments tools to a new system. All of the old comments are being saved and any useful suggestions within these will be added back on the pages over time.
• New posters have been made to help you share Teaching Ideas (and my other sites) with your colleagues. Could you put one of these up in your staffroom?
• There have been two new themes so far this year… Staying Safe Online and Kings and Queens. I’m planning lots of new themes and I’ll be making announcements about these soon!
• Of course, I’ve also added lots of new resources to the site. Look at the New Ideas page to see the latest updates. Thanks to everyone who has contributed… if you have an idea or a lesson resource to share, please get in touch!

Teaching Photos

• As I mentioned in a previous post, Teaching Photos has been transferred to a brand new gallery system. The new site has been incredibly popular and has had lots of visitors. A number of members of the new site have also uploaded their own photos, or sent some pictures to me to add. You can view the latest photos here. Do you have some nice photos of your own classroom displays? Send them along!

Teaching Events

• Teaching Events was also updated to a new system a few months ago. The new site provides a much better overview of the different events that you could use as starting points for your lessons. It also has a much more powerful back-end which makes it easier for me to add new events!

Teaching Videos

• I’ve also continued to add new educational videos to Teaching Videos every week!

Which of my Teaching Websites is your favourite?

Learning about money is an important part of life and education… here are links to some sites and resources which may be useful to you:

• This BBC report shows schools in Northern Ireland where lessons in personal finance are compulsory for all children.
• The following Youtube video shows five tips to teach younger children good money habits:

www.childrensmoneyworld.com

www.moneysmartworld.com

Do you have a favourite resource when teaching children about money? Please let us know about it by suggesting it in the comments… thank you!

Image – £20